Fleeing doctors makes situation worse in Kokrajhar

By- Staff Reporter | Date- December 13, 2011

The situation in Kokrajhar has gone from bad to worse with patients facing huge hardships due to the absence of doctors who were serving in the district. The doctors of the district had ran away terrorized by NDFB militants who asked them to pay huge sums as protection money.

The administration is reported to have made efforts to bring back the doctors but doctors have refused to return to their posts yet. Doctors from several disciplines, including medicine, gynecology, and anesthesiology have been deputed from Gauhati Medical College to serve in the Kokrajhar Civil Hospital under armed protection. However this is still far short from requirement and as such a huge shortage of doctors has rendered the residents of the region helpless.

Emergency patients are worst hit and patients are made to travel to either Bongaigaon or Guwahati for medical facility. The poor patients are the worst sufferers. It is also being feared that private practitioners would also slowly tend to move away from the region. In fact some of the private practitioners are already reported to have shut down their clinics.

Regarding the matter the BTC chief Hagrama Mohilary has stated that the Ranjan Daimary faction of NDFB is responsible for the extortion threats to doctors. However, both the NDFB factions have denied their involvement in the matter yet. State Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi also admitted that the situation was bad and that adequate measures are being put into place.